Novak Djokovic

In the spring of 1999, as NATO bombs fell on Belgrade, an eleven-year-old Novak Djokovic kept practicing tennis. His family sheltered at night and he kept training by day in a city under attack. He has said since that the experience made him tougher and hungrier. Whatever else it did, it produced a player who seems to treat adversity as fuel.

He was born at 11:25 p.m. on May 22, 1987, in Belgrade, a time from the city's register of births, and the late hour puts Capricorn on the Ascendant. Capricorn is the sign astrologers associate with discipline, patience and the long climb, a sign that tends to get better with age. As a first impression it reads as controlled and serious. As a career pattern it describes someone who outlasts rather than outshines, which is close to the story of his rivalry with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal: the third man in the conversation who, by the end, had won more than either of them.

His family ran a pizza restaurant in the mountain resort of Kopaonik, where tennis courts happened to be built across the road. A coach named Jelena Gencic spotted him there as a small boy and became his first mentor. From there the climb was long and methodical. He became the men's record holder for Grand Slam singles titles, with 24, spent more weeks ranked world No. 1 than any other player, and in 2024 finally won the Olympic gold medal that had eluded him, in Paris.

His Sun sits at the very start of Gemini in the fourth house, traditionally tied to home, family and roots. Gemini is quick, curious and multilingual by temperament, and Djokovic speaks several languages and is known for switching between them in on-court interviews. The fourth house keeps the focus on where he comes from. He has always played as a Serbian first, and his family has been a constant presence in his box.

Mars, the planet of physical drive, sits at the start of Cancer in the sixth house, the area astrologers read for health, routine and daily work. Astrologers would read that as energy channeled into the body's maintenance and habits, and it is hard to think of an athlete more associated with regimen. He has credited a change in diet, including cutting out gluten, with transforming his results around 2010, and his stretching, sleep and recovery routines have become part of his legend.

The Moon is in Aries in the second house, home to resources and self-worth. Aries Moons react quickly and fiercely, and in the second they tie emotional security to proving one's value. On court, that fire is visible in the shouted celebrations, the broken rackets and the moments when he seems to play best after the crowd has turned against him.

Plenty of players have had more natural flair. Few have had the Capricorn rising that turns persistence into a style, and none has won more of the biggest titles.